USS ''Halibut'' (SSGN-587), a unique nuclear-powered guided missile submarine-turned-special operations platform, later redesignated as an attack submarine SSN-587, was the second ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named after the halibut.

Operational history

''Halibut''s keel was laid down by

Mare Island Naval Shipyard The Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates t ...

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to th ...

, on 11 April 1957. She was launched on 9 January 1959, sponsored by Vernice Holifield, wife of Congressman Chet Holifield of California, and commissioned on 4 January 1960.

Regulus deterrence patrols, 1960 – 1965

''Halibut'' was originally designed under project SCB 137 as a diesel-electric submarine, but was completed with

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

under SCB 137A. She was the first submarine initially designed to launch guided missiles. Intended to carry the Regulus I and Regulus II nuclear cruise missiles, her main deck was high above the waterline to provide a dry "flight deck." Her missile system was completely automated, with

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...

machinery controlled from a central control station. ''Halibut'' departed on her shakedown cruise 11 March 1960. On 25 March, underway to Australia, she became the first nuclear-powered submarine to successfully launch a guided missile. She returned to

on 18 June 1960, and after short training cruises sailed 7 November for

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

to join the Pacific Fleet. During her first deployment she successfully launched her seventh consecutive Regulus I missile during a major Southeast Asia Treaty Organization weapons demonstration. Returning to

on 9 April 1961, ''Halibut'' began her second deployment 1 May. During subsequent cruises, she participated in several missile firing exercises and underwent training. ''Halibut'' deployed for the third time to the Western Pacific in late 1961, establishing a pattern of training and readiness operations followed through 1964. On 4 May 1964 ''Halibut'' departed

for the last Regulus missile patrol to be made by a submarine in the Pacific. In total, between February 1961 and July 1964, ''Halibut'' undertook a total of seven deterrent patrols before being replaced in the Pacific by

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude th ...

-equipped submarines of the . From September through December 1964, ''Halibut'' joined eight other submarines in testing and evaluating the attack capabilities of the ''Permit''-class submarine. According to the documentary ''Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines'' the primary target for ''Halibut'' in the event of a nuclear exchange would be to eliminate the Soviet naval base at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The patrols made by ''Halibut'' and its sister Regulus-firing submarines represented the first ever deterrent patrols in the history of the submarine navy, preceding those made by the Polaris missile firing submarines.

Special operations missions, 1965 – 1976

Conversion for special operations (1965)

In 1965, John P. Craven was recruited to Operation Sand Dollar by

US Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serves ...

to build a submarine that would "... Hover in place ..and dangle cameras miles down, deep enough to scout the ocean bottom for Soviet Treasures...". Craven was provided with a selection of either USS ''Seawolf'' or USS ''Halibut'' to convert as the budget could not commission a new, purpose-built vessel. Preferring USS ''Halibut'', he was awarded $70 million in February 1965 to "...Out-fit her with electronic, sonic, photographic, and video gadgets...". ''Halibut'' entered Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul, and on 15 August was redesignated as an attack submarine with the

hull classification symbol The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ...

SSN-587.

Chronology of special operations (1965-1976)

She sailed from

on 6 September for the West Coast, arriving at Keyport, Washington, on 20 September. On 5 October she departed Keyport for Pearl Harbor and, after an eight-day stop over at Mare Island, California, arrived 21 October. ''Halibut'' then began ASW operations in the area, continuing until August 1968 when she transferred to Mare Island for overhaul and installation of: side thrusters; hangar section sea lock; anchoring winches with fore and aft mushroom anchors; saturation diving (mixed gas) habitat; long and short range side-look sonar; video and photographic equipment; Sperry UNIVAC 1224

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; induction tapping and recording equipment; port and starboard, fore and aft seabed skids ("sneakers"); towed underwater search vehicle ("fish") and winch; and other specialized oceanographic equipment. She returned to

in 1970 and operated with the Pacific Fleet and Submarine Development Group One (SubDevGruOne) out of Naval Submarine Support Facility San Diego (present day Naval Base Point Loma / Ballast Point) with attachment offices at Mare Island until decommissioning in 1976. USS Halibut with diver lockout

''Halibut'' was used on underwater espionage missions by the US against the Soviet Union. Her most notable accomplishments include: * The underwater tapping of a Soviet communication line running from the Kamchatka peninsula west to the Soviet mainland in the Sea of Okhotsk (

Operation Ivy Bells Operation Ivy Bells was a joint United States Navy, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and National Security Agency (NSA) mission whose objective was to place wire taps on Soviet underwater communication lines during the Cold War. Background ...

) * Surveying sunken Soviet submarine '' K-129'' in August 1968, prior to the CIA's Project Azorian. The latter mission is profiled in the 1996 book, ''Spy Sub – A Top Secret Mission to the Bottom of the Pacific'', by Dr. Roger C. Dunham, although Dunham was required to change the name of ''Halibut'' to that of the non-existent USS ''Viperfish'' with a false hull number of SSN-655 to pass Department of Defense security restrictions for publication.

Final disposition

''Halibut'' was decommissioned on 30 June 1976. She was " mothballed" at Keyport/ Bangor Trident Base, Washington in 1976, struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on 30 April 1986, and disposed of through the

Ship-Submarine Recycling Program The Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) is the process that the United States Navy uses to dispose of decommissioned nuclear vessels. SRP takes place only at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington, but the preparations ...

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

Bremerton, Washington Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

, on 9 September 1994.

Awards and commendations

In April 1997, officers and men of ''Halibut'' and the other four US Navy submarines that conducted strategic deterrent patrols in the Western Pacific between 1959 and 1964 were awarded the right to wear the Navy's

SSBN Deterrent Patrol insignia The SSBN Deterrent Patrol Insignia is a uniform breast pin worn by officers and enlisted sailors of the United States Navy's submarine service who have completed strategic deterrent patrols in nuclear ballistic or cruise missile submarines. It i ...

Presidential Unit Citation – 1968

:Citation: Citation was given for the search and discovery of the wreck of a Soviet submarine K-129 in three miles of water during Project Azorian.

Presidential Unit Citation – 1972

:Citation:

References

* * *

External links

Some good US Navy pictures
and about the Documentary film produced by Nick T. Spark, '' "Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines" '' which aired initially on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

in Europe. {{DEFAULTSORT:Halibut K-129 submarine sinking accident Signals intelligence Submarines of the United States Navy Cold War submarines of the United States Experimental nuclear submarines of the United States Navy Ships built in Vallejo, California 1959 ships